As a treat, I've decided to write a double review for the new Great Gatsby movie, as well as Melina Marchetta's novel Jellicoe Road, which I should have read ages ago.
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The Great Gatsby (2013)
I was super-stoked about this film in a way I've never been in my life. I watched all three trailers obsessively. I looked up the film soundtrack and started listening to the songs on repeat. When the mediocre reviews started coming in, I was a little bummed but whatever--this was probably my favorite book in AP English back in junior year of high school, and unless they completely butcher the plot the way they did with Ella Enchanted, it should still be enjoyable, right?
Unfortunately, perhaps due to the fact that I slept four hours the night before, I had to force myself to stay awake at the 11 PM screening last Friday. My friend E was not so lucky and fell asleep halfway through. Was it because I already knew the storyline? I really wonder how someone with no knowledge of the book would react to the film, but considering how almost everyone reads this book in high school, I can't think of anyone I know who would be able to relay this perspective to me.
Something just felt off about this movie. It was visually very gorgeous -- I particularly liked the West Egg and East Egg mansions. And I don't know if I'm the only one who thinks this, but I really liked Lana Del Rey's "Young and Beautiful" as the musical theme for the key moments between Gatsby and Daisy. But there was no substantial emotional pull to the movie for me. I was actually annoyed by how blatantly the symbolism of the Eckleberg glasses (eyes of God) was hammered in. (I felt a little better about the green light, since it's THE major symbol of the book. But still a little too much.)
I'm still undecided about how I feel about the casting. I have a lot of respect for Leonardo DiCaprio as an actor, but I don't think I ever really accepted that I was watching the story of Jay Gatsby and not Leonardo DiCaprio walking around in the 1920s. Usually he's pretty immersed in his roles that I forget about him as an actor (ex. Inception, Blood Diamond), but not this time around. As for Carey Mulligan as Daisy? Daisy has always been a complicated character that I never quite grasp completely, so I think my bewilderment is likely due to the source material. I didn't quite feel the chemistry between the two, but since Daisy couldn't really make up her mind between Gatsby and Tom in the novel either, I can't hold much against them for it.
Overall, a little disappointing, but a couple of good things came out of watching this. One, I still really like a lot of the songs on the soundtrack, so I'm glad the film introduced me to some nice music. Two, I was reminded of how much I admire Fitzgerald's writing, so the next book on my TBR list will be This Side of Paradise.
Jellicoe Road by Melina Marchetta
I bought this book last year when Half.com was having a huge sale. The first time I tried to pick it up was in August, and I couldn't get past the first two chapters. Then I bought the e-book when it was on sale via Amazon a few months ago, and so I read the whole thing on my Kindle when I was coming back to California from North Carolina. The beginning of the book was definitely difficult to get through, but this second time, I stuck around instead of giving up, and this story was definitely worth it.
I'm not going to write a synopsis for this book. I dived in without knowing what this novel was about, and I think the less you know, the better the payoff. It's the kind of book that I've always dreamed of writing, where the fragments fit together neatly at the end in a beautifully wrought journey. I haven't come across a love interest this sa-WOON-worthy since Wes from The Truth About Forever, but the romance is secondary to the greater story arc about friendships and the interconnectedness of people's lives, even across time.
There were some things I had an issue with. As I mentioned before, I wonder if the beginning could have been framed in a different way that would have been less jarring. I confess, I might have given up on this book a second time if I hadn't been stuck on an airplane with nothing else to do. I also had an issue with the "war" between the three factions that sets off the beginning of the novel. I was expecting more "battles" like the manure scene, but the territory war quickly dropped into the background and made hardly a peep by the time we reached halfway into the book.
It's not a perfect book, but it's definitely climbed up the ranks of my favorite YA books. It's the kind of poignant book that I wish I can write one day.
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